


love looks not with the eyes

by babyhoneyn



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Art Student Harry Styles, Fluff, Harry Styles Calls Louis Tomlinson Pet Names, Louis Tomlinson Calls Harry Styles Pet Names, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Niall Horan & Louis Tomlinson Friendship, No Smut, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, University Students Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik & Louis Tomlinson Friendship, a bit unrealistic as far as the medical things go, a leeeeeetle bit of angst, blonde niall because I Miss It, i use italics a lot and swear words, just go w it, louis wants to be a physical therapist so hes a bio major, uhh niall watches a lot of criminal minds
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-22 22:31:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13176561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babyhoneyn/pseuds/babyhoneyn
Summary: Harry’s an art student who talks a lot and always smells good and has paint on his shirt. Louis’ a biology major who’s just trying to make it through the year without giving into how endearing Harry is.Or, the soulmate au in which Louis only sees gray in a world full of color. Harry tries to help, and Louis’ frustrated.





	love looks not with the eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> louis studies at the library and pretends he doesn't start to develop a small crush on the annoying art student who talks too much, paints his nails, and reads for pleasure.

Louis had never seen the world in color.

It surrounded him blatantly, but at the same time not at all- he saw the trees, but not the colors that fall brought along with it. He saw himself in the mirror, but not the rosiness of his cheeks or the golden tint of his hair when it caught in the sunlight. What a tease, the world is, to envelope him in colors but not show them to him. It was like he _saw_ it but he didn't _see_ it. It was quite cruel, if you asked him.

Although, that wasn't the extent of it. It was also cruel because every day he witnessed two people find love, saw the elated expressions upon their faces when their eyes met and began to change from a dull gray to a beautiful color.

He wished he could experience that. maybe he'd already met his soulmate, who knows? Not him, because, well, he only ever saw gray in other people's eyes. Never anything else, even if they were brown or blue or green. Always gray.

But if you had never had something in the first place you can’t miss it, right? No, Louis thinks, wrong.

Louis heaves himself up from the chair he'd been lounging in at the cafe and moves to sit at a circular table in the library. The cafe is quite small but the library right off the side of it is huge, so he's happy to spread out all of his things upon the table and sip at his tea every once in a while. He's stressed from all of his classes but at least this setting gives the _illusion_ of peace and relaxation.

So, yeah, back to the "you can't miss it" thing. That's a damn lie, Louis thinks. Because he's only been sitting here for 5 minutes now, and he's already sick of hearing the art student a few tables away from him talk about colors and shades and monochromatic and whatever the hell it all means. He misses it, he does, because he just wants to _get it_. He wants to _understand_ what it all _means_. Louis rolls his eyes at his laptop screen without looking at the source of the voice and puts his headphones in his ears, turning on music in a fruitless attempt to drown out the boy’s drawling conversation.

With a sigh, he sits up a bit in his chair and catches the scene unfolding across the room at the cafe. The barista and the girl ordering a drink have seemingly only just met, a second passes after they make eye contact and suddenly they're hugging and their faces are happy and lips are turned upwards into smiles. He wants to be completely happy for them, and he is _very_ happy for them, of course, but he’d be lying if he said he didn't feel a twinge of jealousy. Knowing that he’d never experience that was hard.

It wasn't like he wasn't ever going to find his soulmate. He was out there, that boy had to be  _somewhere_ , but Louis could only hope he’d still want him after finding that Louis would see no difference between his irises prior to meeting him, and post meeting him. Surely fate wouldn’t pair him up with someone awful, right? 

Louis huffs and tears his gaze away from the new couple, pretending he’s not wondering what colors their eyes are. It’s not like he’d know what they looked like anyway. He’s only heard names of colors, people had tried to explain to him what they looked like but it was pointless, he was born this way. Gray was all he’d ever known. He’d lived like this for 21 years, so the rest of his life couldn't be _that_ difficult. (Hopefully.)

Louis finally gets to work, opening a new tab on his laptop and tapping his foot upon the ground as he thinks about what to write. He’s got an assignment due in two days and in true Louis fashion, hasn't gotten even close to halfway through it yet. All he’s done is some research and brainstormed a few things.

The library’s a good place to work though because everyone’s always just minding their own business, and he likes that. He likes not seeing the sympathetic looks from people when he tells them he’s completely colorblind. He likes not overhearing them say “what a shame,” as they walk away.

He shrugs his shoulders, tilts his head left, right, cracks his knuckles, and very dramatically gets started. What he doesn’t notice is the boy who'd been talking about colors earlier watching him subtly, messy curls and black nail polish standing out blatantly.

*

It’s a few hours later and Louis has almost completed his assignment, he reads over it with pursed lips and decides he can finish the rest later. However, his laptop’s battery is low but he’s forgotten a charger and still needs to do one more thing for another class.

Louis leans back in the somewhat-comfy chair, pauses his music, and looks around the library to see if someone has a charger. It’s a large space, a pretty one at that, full of all types of different people with varying levels of stress. There’s a girl a few tables away from him who tugs at her hair before huffing and pulling it back into a bun, clearly frustrated. Louis raises his eyebrows and averts his eyes quickly before she can notice him looking at her in this, er, difficult moment.

He looks and sees the art student who had been rambling earlier in the corner of the library. He’s moved and is now sitting on a couch, looking the most relaxed out of everyone occupying the building, and Louis allows himself to watch for a moment as the boy tilts his head and continues to read the book in his lap with an interested expression. It’s quite clear that he’s either reading just for pleasure or thoroughly enjoys the class he’s taking, the polished nail of his index finger trailing down the page as his eyes follow. Louis gets a weird swooping feeling in his tummy as he looks on.

Louis’ eyes travel down the boy’s long body and to his feet which are propped up on his bag, shoes discarded to the side and fuzzy socks on display. It should annoy Louis that someone took their shoes off in a shared public place, but for some reason it doesn’t. For some reason when this boy does it it’s sort of.. endearing. Dunno.

Louis sighs and tears his gaze away. He forgets about the charger and instead thinks about how much he really, _really_ wants to get something to eat. He packs up his things rather quickly, deciding that he can do his work later tonight in his flat although he knows that since it’s Wednesday Niall will be watching  _Criminal Minds_ and beg Louis to watch it with him to “make it less scary”.

Louis walks in the direction of his building and wraps his jacket a bit tighter around his body. His phone vibrates and he looks at it to check Niall’s two texts, 

_Lou !_

_Show startin in 15 min . Come home pls i can’t watch by myself_

Louis rolls his eyes at the message and pockets his phone, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t pick up the pace a bit. He makes it home with a few minutes to spare, pushing the door shut behind him and kicking his shoes off.

“Niall,” Louis calls out as he plops down on the couch. He sets his bag at his feet and takes out his laptop, plugging it into the charger trailing across the floor before opening the top to finish up his two assignments. Not a minute has passed before Niall is by his side, wordlessly handing him a plate with two slices of pizza on it as he clicks on the TV with the remote. Louis' eyes widen and he places his right hand over his heart, accepting the pizza with his left and setting it down next to Niall's on the coffee table in front of them.

“This,” Louis begins, putting his laptop on the floor and taking a bite of the pizza, “is the nicest thing you’ve ever done for me.”

Niall turns his attention away from the commercial on the TV to wink at Louis, a small smile on his lips. “You sit through this show every Wednesday even though you have no interest. We’ll call it even,” his mouth is full but so is Louis’, so Louis decides not to mention that that's kind of gross. 

Louis shrugs because well yeah, he sits through  _Criminal Minds_  every week for Niall, but he’d really do anything for Niall, so. Not to be sappy or anything, nope. To make it less sappy Louis smacks Niall in the head with a throw pillow his mum brought over the second time she visited because they "need more decoration", and gets to work on his computer. 

Just as the unsub on the show is caught, Louis, having been _quite_ productive thank you very much, finishes up his assignments. He leans further into the couch and glances at Niall who is cuddled under a blanket and furrowing his eyebrows at the screen. He waits 10 minutes for the show to end before standing up, patting Niall's blonde hair, and making his way to his bedroom. (He passes Niall's room on the way, which is surprisingly tidy at the moment.)

After showering, Louis gets into bed and turns on _Friends_. He tries not to think about the art student, or his classes, or about the fact that he may never find his soulmate because he can't even look for them. He pretends it doesn't bother him.

* * *

Louis wakes up late.

"Fuck!" he yells, shooting up out of bed at the speed of light. The clock reads 7:43, and he's got an anatomy class at 8. People told him not to take early classes, they did, but at the time he wasn't listening. In this moment he decides he's a huge idiot.

Niall isn't home which is weird, because he was _smart_ and didn't take any morning classes, so Louis hasn't got a clue where he is. Probably getting breakfast or something, which is actually even weirder because who _choses_ to be awake this early?

Louis showers in _literally_  1 minute and 30 seconds, doesn't wash his hair, and he brushes his teeth while he tries to pull on his shoes which ends up taking longer to multitask than it would to do them separately. He has only a few minutes to get to his class and is absolutely positive he forgot something. 

When he gets to the class it’s 8:02 and the professor hasn’t arrived yet. As Louis goes to a free seat he smiles at everyone he makes eye contact with because well, he’s in a much better mood now than he was a few minutes ago when he thought the professor would know he arrived late.

*

When class is over Louis packs up his things with a yawn. He’s still tired. He’s always _still tired_.

His phone rings in his pocket and he glances at Zayn’s name on the screen for a moment before answering it, “Hey.”

Louis’ not the best at multitasking even with simple things, so walking straight while talking on the phone is a hassle. He manages to almost walk into a girl but smiles and mouths ‘sorry’ when he passes her in a weak attempt to apologize for being a bit clumsy.

“Hey,” Zayn’s voice is quiet in his ear, hushed like he’s somewhere he shouldn’t be speaking on the phone, “I have something to tell you. Can I come over later?”

Louis furrows his eyebrows as he walks into the cafe he’d been in yesterday, confused at the fact that Zayn also sounds a little nervous. He’s 99% sure he knows what Zayn wants to tell him but plays dumb for his friend’s sake, “Yeah, I only have one more class at 11 and then I’m free for the rest of the day. Want me to stop by now?”

“No!” Zayn replies a bit too quickly but composes himself, “no, no. It’s fine. I’ll come over after your class, yeah?”

Louis nods and then remembers Zayn can’t see him. “Sounds good.” he hangs up and pockets his phone, allowing himself to smile a bit at the fact that Zayn might have met his soulmate. He can’t really think of anything else Zayn would be nervous to tell him about.

Louis gets a muffin and tea and sits at a small high table by the window, zoning out on the wood top of the table as he eats. A loud crash behind the counter causes him to jump, someone in the corner shrieks, the barista spins around quickly and everyone is staring at the, guess who, really pretty fucking art student Louis saw yesterday.

Louis stares at the boy, he’s making an ‘oops’ expression and his cheeks turn a little darker, mumbling, “Sorry,” before he leans down and picks up the things he dropped and knocked over. He must work here since he's wearing an apron and a name tag. Louis turns away before he can notice him looking and he’s flustered at how attractive the boy really is, curly hair pushed back by a headband and a dark shirt a bit tight across his chest.

Louis swallows, looking down at his lap. He finishes his muffin and takes his tea with him as he leaves the cafe. Taking the back of his hand and pressing it to his cheeks, he feels just how hot his face has gotten.

He chances a glance back into the cafe through the glass and looks at Art Student, who looks up at that exact moment. Art Student’s eyes widen and his lips part.

Louis furrows his eyebrows and quickly breaks the eye contact before hurrying away, embarrassed. 

He shakes his head as he jogs to the nearest person he knows who is out of sight from anyone inside the cafe. Sarah, a girl who’s in one of his classes, smiles as she sees him approach her, the sunglasses on her face are large but they suit her.

“Hey Lou," she greets, "you good?” Sarah reaches out to steady him by placing a hand on his shoulder, then puts her phone back into her purse and moves to sit on a bench, Louis following.

“I, uh,” Louis’ a bit out of breath, “I’m alright. You?”

Sarah doesn’t answer his question, just stares back at him with an amused expression. “Are you sure you’re okay? You seem a little..” she trails off, raising her eyebrows.

“Sarah, I’m _fine_ , thank you very much.” Louis replies. The sassiness only slightly covers up how flustered he still is, his belly is in the air like how he used to feel when he was younger and just got off a rollercoaster.

“Okay.. How’s your day?” Sarah asks.

“Weird.” Louis says, because it _is_. This day is just all over the place. He woke up late and got ready in less than 20 minutes, but his class didn’t start until just after he got there; Zayn is nervous to tell him about something—probably his soulmate—but Zayn is _never_ nervous with Louis because they’re best friends so, yeah, weird; and the whole _intense attraction_ thing with Art Student.

Just... _Weird_.

Sarah nods, somehow understanding. “Wanna tell me about it?”

Louis shakes his head, “No, it’s fine. So how’s your day?”

It’s very clear that Louis is avoiding something and Sarah wants to ask more, but gives into his unspoken wishes by answering his question rather than producing a new one. “Eh. I’m going to the testing center to take a test, so.”

Louis grimaces. “Yikes.” He would say he’d hate to be her right now, but that’d be a lie. He’d rather be anyone but himself right now.

*

Louis’ home finally, and smiles as he throws himself down onto the couch with a soft thud. He loves his couch, he does.

“Lou?” he hears Niall’s voice to his far left. Louis doesn’t respond with words, rather with a loud groan and turns to press his face into the couch cushion.

“Louis.” Niall’s voice is now directly above him.

“What,” Louis speaks into the couch, eyes shutting and shirt riding up a bit as he shifts.

“Zayn is—” Niall’s voice is cut off by the sound of a smack, and Louis shoots up off of the couch to tackle Zayn to the ground for smacking his butt.

Niall rolls his eyes and sighs, turning around and going back into the kitchen to get a beer. He heads to his room and takes his laptop with him, probably to watch a game or Netflix or something.

After Louis successfully returns the smack, he sits on the couch and Zayn sits in the chair near it. The room is a bit dark since the curtains aren’t open all the way.

“So?” Louis says expectantly, excitedly, crossing his legs and folding his hands in his lap. He smirks, but his face breaks into a full smile when he notices that Zayn is trying to fight a smile and failing.

“I met my soulmate.” Zayn doesn’t look up at Louis, just fumbles with his hands in his lap as his smile grows.

“I figured as much after our phone call. So, how did it happen? Tell me about her!” Louis replies happily, reaching out to pat Zayn’s knee.

Zayn still doesn’t look up, but he lounges back in the chair and visibly gets a little less tense. He takes a deep breath before talking. “Him.”

Louis raises his eyebrows, voice soft, “Excuse me?”

Zayn looks at Louis, nods, “ _Him_.”

“Oh my god,” Louis says, because he doesn’t know what else to say. Zayn always thought he was straight, had girlfriends in high school and always imagined his soulmate to be a woman. “You have to tell me the whole story. How..” Louis trails off, “How do you feel?”

“About the fact that Liam’s a guy and not a girl? At first I thought it was some sort of a joke because, like,” Zayn stutters, tripping over his words as he tries to find the right thing to say. “I always thought my soulmate would be a woman. But, like, he was so excited and so _cute_ , I knew it was the real thing, and then,” he takes a deep breath, “I dunno. He’s just… He’s so cute. And like, I always had a bit of an attraction to men but I never labeled it, I just thought nothing of it.”

Louis is beaming, absolutely _beaming_ , because this is Zayn who he’s known for years and he’s just.. Zayn’s obviously elated and he feels free and it’s making Louis hopeful, which could be dangerous but perhaps it’s not. He supposes it could be a good thing.

“Well go on then, tell me more!” Louis urges. Seeing Zayn like this is different. It’s sweet, light, a little vulnerable.

(They both kind of love it.)

“Well I went to the art supply store because I was finishing up a project but I ran out of white paint— anyway,” (Louis thinks that Zayn is very cute when he’s flustered) “I had paint on my shirt, and you know those ugly pants I wear when I’m working on something? Yeah, I had those on, and I just looked like a mess. I mean, I hadn’t even put my contact lenses in so I was wearing my glasses. But I brought the paint and some brushes to the counter and put them down, and when I looked up it was him.” Zayn is beaming, perfect teeth on display as he smiles.

Louis nods along, “Go _on_ ,” He’s intrigued. Not only has he not experienced this yet, but Zayn is his best friend. Louis is probably almost as excited as Zayn is.

“Right, and then I saw his eyes turn brown and he got really excited, but I was confused and there were more people in line behind me so I told him I’d stay until his lunch break started. And _Lou_ ,” Zayn’s smile grows if it’s even possible, “he was _so_ cute. He was working and he kept, like, turning around to check that I was still sitting there. And when your eyes first change they’re still kind of dull, like they aren’t even noticeably different unless you maintain eye contact, so every time he looked his eyes got prettier and _god_ ,” Zayn lays totally out on the chair, “this is the best thing to have ever happened to me. We went back to my flat so I could finish up my project and he just sat there and we were talking, and he kissed me, and I don’t even care a little bit that it’s not what I expected because this is _so_ much better. I mean, I was kind of skeptical at first but I just told him the truth and he was really understanding, and this feels so easy now that it’s happened.”

Zayn is on cloud 9, that’s for sure. Louis is still beaming, and Zayn is beaming, and if Niall was here he’d be beaming too. The combination of Louis and Zayn’s smiles are brighter than the stars and produce more light than the sun, and neither of them are complaining about it.

“That’s amazing, man, that’s wonderful.” Louis stands up and hugs Zayn, who returns it and holds his best friend tight.

When they pull away, Louis leans close to look at Zayn’s eyes, “Hm, no different to me.” he jokes. Zayn rolls his eyes, “They’re brown, just so you know.”

As Louis continues to look, though, Zayn stares back at Louis’ irises and notices that the beginning of the color blue is beginning to show up. It’s almost unnoticeable, it couldn’t be recognized if you weren’t looking for it, but Zayn sees it. He sees the tint of blue.

"What?" Louis tilts his head, confused.

“Lou..” he trails off, holding Louis’ head still with his hands on either side of his face. “Your eyes look like they’re starting to change.”

Louis pulls himself away, confused. “ _What_ _?_ Zayn, you can’t joke about that.”

“Louis, I swear I’m not joking,” he replies, furrowing his eyebrows, “seriously. They’re _really slightly_ tinted blue.”

“Blue?” Louis repeats. He sits down on the couch and stares at the coffee table. “I made eye contact with plenty of strangers today, how do I know who it was if we didn’t look at each other long enough for it to be noticeable?”

Zayn shrugs, grimacing. “Not sure. But the good thing is, your soulmate is close. They’re not, like, in another country or something. They’re close.”

Louis nods, smiling a little. “Close, yeah.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title based on a quote from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, "Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind." (i read the quote out of context so tbh? idk how it's intended to come across but i'm using it for my fic okay).
> 
> Louis is 100%, completely colorblind and cannot see ANY color whatsoever. This may be (is probably, i didn't do any research lol) unrealistic/not possible in real life/medicine but it's necessary for the fic!! 
> 
> This is a soulmate au in which a person's irises are gray, void of any color-- but when they meet their soulmate their eyes change to the color they were always meant to be.
> 
> Enjoy!!!, find me on tumblr at babyhoneyn.


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